which the British ended up holding throughout most of the war,

在战争的大部分时间里英国人始终控制着那里
and weakest in Massachusetts, Virginia and Connecticut.

在马萨诸塞弗吉尼亚和康涅狄格州最弱
Connecticut stood up.

康涅狄格州首当其冲
But there's a reason for that

这里头是有缘由的
because those are among the oldest colonies

因为在老殖民地
with a very long tradition of self-government, aggressive self-government.

有着非常悠久的积极自治的传统
Scholars who have studied loyalists have noted

研究效忠派的学者注意到
that there seemed to be several types of people

有几类人似乎
who ended up being more likely to become Loyalists.

更有可能成为效忠派
One likely Loyalist--and this won't be surprising--

一个可能的效忠派...这并不意外...
would have been people who were connected with the British government

可能原来就跟英国政府有联系
by some kind of an official appointment,

并接受过某种官方任命